The CEO’s CEO: Who Decides Who Decides?

An aspect of our advisory work with senior executives includes assisting them in thinking through the design of their organizational structures. While it could be easy for some to assume this is only about hard structure reporting relationships and business divisions or units, in fact the “soft structures” in business organizations are equally if not more important. And like the Necker Cube (http://www.originicity.com/2010/01/naivete-in-leadership-capacity-necker.html ), there is more than one right answer. Soft Structure includes, among other things, the way organizations make decisions. For example, when there is confusion between two or more executives as to who is responsible for making a specific business decision, we often ask: “Who decides who decides?” If there is no clear soft structure by which to make that determination, frequently the CEO will end up having to decide.

But it turns out that with a quadrillion neural synapses (above), asking “Who decides who decides?” is equally important inside the brain of the CEO themselves. If you thought large multinational organizations were complex, take a look inside the head of just one CEO. “The human brain is the most complex natural system in the known universe; its complexity rivals and probably exceeds the complexity of the most intricate social and economic structures.” And like a large organization, the brain has distinct areas with distinct functional jobs to do. (Goldberg, The New Executive Brain).

Just think of it: Fortune’s 2009 ranking of world’s largest companies is topped by Walmart with 2,055,000 employees. (http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/global500/2008/snapshots/2255.html)

But the CEO’s brain is comprised of 100 billion cells interconnected by long and short pathways. Information is passed along through a combination of electrical signals and chemicals. This “network of mind-boggling complexity”… allows for “coding information of stupendous complexity.” When faced with a even a mere one billion of those cells at your neocortex office door sending a barrage of ambiguous data -- sensations -- perceptions -- kinesthetic movements -- emotions -- pains -- pleasures --  fears -- desires -- ambitions --  drives --  foresight -- insight  -- and  memories   [ at least a reasonable and hopefully useful portion of Kim Peek’s memories (the telephone book, even if complete, may not help here) ] -- faced with all that, just what part of the brain is it that exercises clear intentionality and purposefulness in that moment to execute the complex decision making process required?  In other words:  Who decides who decides?

Goldberg tells us that the CEO’s CEO is the frontal lobes, the prefrontal cortex. This is the "Executive Office" of the brain. The frontal lobes are critical for motivation, for attention, and for every meaningful learning process. (Goldberg, p. 5) This is clear neurological confirmation that the leadership capacity that distinguishes the CEO’s mind is much more than acquired knowledge or IQ, more than the years of accumulation of technical experience.

Initially these lobes were not thought to have great significance in mental functioning. They are not linked specifically to any one function. Even today, just exactly what they do is not easily defined. (Very aptly, the same is often said of a CEO.) The uniqueness of the role is perhaps best understood, as Goldberg suggests, through the metaphor of the orchestra conductor, whose visible role is not immediately obvious to the uninformed, because they play no instrument and produce no noticeable sound. The role they play is the coordinating, integrating, architecting role, somewhat “behind the scenes”. But without their forward looking strategic design, their sense of timing, their synthesizing connections, their moment-to-moment decision making --- the music stops.